NITN | @notintownlive | 11 Aug 2026, 07:29 am
Sri Lanka
Indian travellers can now avail exclusive offers on PickMe Rides in Sri Lanka by paying through UPI. Photo: Unsplash
NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL), the international arm of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), has announced exclusive benefits for Indian travelers using the PickMe platform for rides in Sri Lanka.
Travellers can avail a flat 20% discount up to LKR 750, on every ride, when paying through Unified Payments Interface (UPI), making travel across Sri Lanka more convenient and rewarding.
PickMe is Sri Lanka's largest ride-hailing platform, serves over 1.9 million unique users and facilitating mobility services across major cities, tourist destinations and airport transfers, making it one of the country's most widely used ride-hailing platforms.
The initiative aims to encourage greater use of UPI among Indian tourists by bringing added value to an everyday travel use case. By paying for PickMe rides through UPI-enabled applications, Indian travelers can make secure, real-time payments directly from their Indian bank accounts, while reducing their dependence on cash and currency exchange.
To make UPI payments in Sri Lanka, travelers can activate the UPI Global/UPI International service for an eligible bank account through their UPI-enabled application. Once activated, they can use UPI to make payments at supported merchants during their stay.
India continues to be Sri Lanka’s largest source market for tourism, with over 531,000 Indian tourists visiting the country in 2025. UPI is accepted across Sri Lanka, including pilgrimage sites, tourist attractions, shopping centres, transportation services, cafés and restaurants, as well as other merchants accepting LankaQR, allowing Indian travellers to make convenient and seamless payments throughout their trip.
As digital payments become an integral part of the travel experience, this collaboration aims to bring greater convenience and value to Indian tourists visiting Sri Lanka. By extending UPI payments to local mobility, one of the most frequent and practical use cases for travellers, the initiative also contributes to strengthening digital connectivity between India and Sri Lanka.
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